This application involves computer-implemented techniques for collecting, displaying, and manipulating digital information.
The proliferation of the Internet, as well as commercial and private intranets, has put vast amounts of information in the hands of everyday computer users. In general, a user can obtain a virtually limitless amount of information on virtually any topic within minutes.
It is very common for a person to consult the Internet or a private intranet when gathering information for use in preparing a document. In general, the person gathers information on a particular topic by performing a keyword search of the Internet or intranet, reviews the collected information, and then prepares the document, drawing upon the collected information. Many computer systems allow the user to view some of the collected information in one window while preparing a document in another window. The amount of useful information gathered during the keyword search depends primarily on the user""s skill in formulating the search. Information being searched for typically has some relation to information currently displayed on the monitor. This new information, in turn, tends to guide the user to still more related material by exposing them and their resulting queries to more focused or even tangential material.
A computer system includes a display device, a storage device on which an application program is stored, and a processor. The processor retrieves the application program from the storage device and, under control of the application program, generates or receives at least one text string to be displayed on the display device. An information management engine receives these strings and uses them to generate a list of sources of information related to the text strings. A display driver delivers the text strings both to the display device for rendering and to the information management engine. The information management engine finds related information. The display driver or other application program subsequently receives this list of related material from the information management engine and delivers it to the display device for rendering.
Other embodiments and advantages will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.